Posts
The essence of Passover
Email it
Print it
| 
| | 
| 
| 
| 
| What are these?
To The Packet:
Thank you for your coverage of the Passover holiday in your April 5 edition.
In our Rabbinic Sages' opinions, the most important symbol of the seder plate has been left unmentioned. The rabbis, in formulating Judaism out of the ashes of Hebrewism with its priestly cult of animal sacrifice in the temple of Jerusalem, developed what we Jews now know as the Seder, or Passover meal. Removing chumetz, leavened products, from our homes also was to be a time for us to reflect on removing the ego from our lives. We are to learn to be as humble and as unleavened as matzo.
When we thank God for his liberation of us from slavery in Egypt, we are to remember that the Hebrew word for Egypt is Mitzriam, which means narrow, and we are to humbly pray to God to remove the narrow thinking and the bondage of self, which separates us from him and his children. This is what our sages felt that the true essence of Passover is.
It is then, God willing, when we all can fulfill our destiny to be a "true light unto the nations," and really understand Micah when he teaches, "He has showed you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God."
May we all enjoy a happy Holy Day season on our lovely island.
Arthur L. Segal
Hilton Head Island
Start the year off right. Easy ways to stay in shape in the new year.
